Uralla landholders quizz gold explorer

A company exploring for gold in the Wilsons Creek and Rocky River area of Uralla, in northern New South Wales, has met landholders to discuss its exploration plans.

Sovereign Gold addressed a crowd of nearly 100 farmers and local residents on Wednesday night at Whyworry Wines, which is caught in the company's exploration licence area.

CEO, Nick Raffan, says he wanted to give landholders the chance to ask questions about Sovereign Gold's intentions in the region.

"Well, it's really in the very early stages of exploration, we're not even three months into the exploration program yet, and that could easily last two to three years," he said.

"We have found gold mineralisation and we've reported those results to the Sydney Stock Exchange, but how much gold there is at Rocky River Uralla gold field is yet to be found out."

David Stelitz is the owner of 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) in the exploration area.

He was at the Wednesday night meeting and says drilling has just begun on his property "Underwood".

"Well, they just started today actually so that's something and the next door neighbours have been having some done there and as far as we can see we really don't know what's going to happen from here on," he said.

"I mean, Queensland's just like a pin-cushion and, no doubt, this area's going to end up the same way unless we're very careful and I don't think we can really stop it."

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